NEW DELHI: Last month, a rep from the Irish Dairy Board dropped by at Mother Dairy's Patparganj plant in East Delhi to shoot the breeze with Managing Director Siva Nagarajan. They met in the plush confines of the company's Innovation Centre conference room and as the conversation progressed, Nagarajan --or Naga as he's fondly called -- served up a pinkish cup of rice kheer to the Irishman.

He devoured it in no time and asked for a second helping. Naga obliged and then asked why he asked for another cup. It transpired that he had at the back of his mind rice pudding in Germany from a firm called Mulder. He wanted to do a mental comparison of the two products. Naga made sure the meeting ended on a sweet note as the Irishman asked for tech transfer for kheer and a bevy of other products that Mother Dairy manufactures.

Mother Dairy has been re-calibrating its Delhi-centric approach over the years, expanding to other parts of the country, and even overseas. The top management today comprises hires from multinational companies who bring in much needed agility and leanness to an organisation that counts a million people in its supply chain dispensing 30 lakh litres of milk a day.

From selling commoditised milk to exporting mangoes to Japanese customers or banana purees for sorbets in the European market to identifying gherkins as an export item off Bangalore or even offering golgappa-flavoured kulfis at Rs 5 a pop to the domestic consumer, Mother Dairy today straddles an enviable range. In its march to capture new markets and emerge as a leader across categories, the Rs 5,279 crore company is hiring global consultants to tweak its systems, keeping a mindful eye on fair price to the farmer and value to the consumer, the twin peaks that are embedded in the DNA of the company.

The corporate makeover

There's clearly a change in thinking from a cooperative setup back in 1974 when Mother Dairy was created as part of the 'Operation Flood' programme of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). In 2000, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Private Limited (MDFVPL) was incorporated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of NDDB to take over the assets, functions and personnel of Mother Dairy Delhi and Fruit & Vegetable Project.

But it was in FY2007-08, on the recommendation of a study by Accenture, a corporate structure actually started taking root. That year, Dhara Vegetable Oil & Food Company Limited, another wholly-owned subsidiary of NDDB, was amalgamated into the fold of MDFVPL.

Soon after, taking cues from the study, three strategic business units (SBUs) - dairy, horticulture and oils - were created and functional structures were designed. Gradually, a fourth SBU, dairy products, was incorporated. "The accountability matrix was also fixed at that point of time, implying each functional head was accountable for everything in their respective domains," says Saugata Mitra, Chief People Officer, MDFVPL, who served Japanese consumer electronics majors Sony and Sharp before taking up a position with Mother Dairy.

All through the transition and beyond, the six-member board led by Chairperson Amrita Patel, has been more than supportive, says Naga. "This board has a sense of appreciation of what the consumer wants and what the farmer has to go through. It understands fairness and doesn't do anything with a short term point of view," says Naga, who has wide-ranging experience in the FMCG space and worked with Philips before signing on at Mother Dairy. He demonstrates with an example.

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